DOVO Stainless Steel Headshaver

Unfortunately the Dovo Head Shaver has been discontinued and no longer available for sale. You might pick up a used Dovo on Ebay or Craigslist, but that’s about it. Since I was lucky enough many years back to test one out, I’ll leave my Dovo Head Shaver review below for reference.

What I like

What I don’t like

Overall

Review

The DOVO Headshaver is a specialty razor, designed specifically for people who shave their heads. Instead of the traditional straight handle, the DOVO Headshaver uses an interesting curved handle that has hooks for 3 fingers to securely hold the device in your hand. You shave by dragging the blade over your head in a motion similar to brushing your (non-existent) hair backwards.

That’s where the DOVO unit is at its best: when you’re shaving from front to back in a smooth motion. Shaving along the top of the scalp is easy and quick, thanks to the innovative design.

Unfortunately, it’s awkward to use in other contexts. The design is clumsy around the ears, for instance. It’s very awkward on the face (which is not really surprising, since it is designed specifically for the scalp). I found myself using my regular razor on the face and around the ears just to get a decent shave there. And when shaving the back of the head, the prescribed “front to back” motion means you’re shaving with the grain; for me, that wasn’t producing a close enough shave. You can reverse the direction you shave in (though the instructions don’t recommend it), and I found I got a close enough shave in the back doing this.

Other downsides: the blades that came with it did tend to gunk up fairly quickly, and I found them awkward to clean out sometimes. Also, I tended to miss spots while using this razor. Even after using it for over a month, I would often find I had missed a spot and so wasn’t completely smooth. This was improving, though, so perhaps it’s just a matter of getting more used to the razor.

This product will draw inevitable comparisons to the HeadBlade, so I should point out a few things. First, they can use the same blades, as the HeadBlade uses blade adapters manufactured by DOVO. Second, though they have similarities, they are quite different in appearance and functionality. The DOVO Headshaver has 3 “hooks” for the fingers, whereas the HeadBlade has one; conversely, the DOVO unit only has one point of contact with the scalp (the blade) whereas the HeadBlade has two. I found it took more practice with the DOVO Headshaver to get the angle fo the blade right; with the HeadBlade, the angle is determined by the second point of contact.

Personally, I find the DOVO Headshaver to be the cooler looking design, but I find the HeadBlade to be slightly easier to use. I still prefer a regular razor to these specialty razors for shaving, though.

Overall, the DOVO Headshaver is an interesting product, and it would definitely make a fine gift for the bald-by-choice gentleman, but you probably won’t want to give up your regular razor entirely.

Links

Since the DOVO is no longer available for sale the closest thing to it is the HeadBlade ATX.  Go checkout our HeadBlade ATX review.